Russia - Nuclear Weapons - Teasing the ' Paper Tiger '

- Article Updated on May 27 -

BREAKING NEWS on May 25: In today's evening news, the Arabic news center AL-Jazeera الجزيرة reported on a nuclear deal signed between Russia and Belarus. It's about the urgent transfer of nuclear weapons from Russia to Belarus. That transfer should have already been in progress.

This morning the Chinese news center ZaoBao 早报 in Singapore came up with their evaluation of the Belgorod incident. It can be seen as a warning to all those who believe in the success of border-crossing attacks on Russia's military by allegedly independent Russian militias and without direct involvement of the Ukrainian army.

到了今天，美国似乎已作出了“核威胁只是纸老虎”的判断。这从拜登在G7峰会上迅速改变了过去一年多的立场，同意帮助向乌克兰输出战斗机的决定中可见。而美国国务院接连对于乌克兰在俄境发动攻击表示“这是乌克兰人的决定”，更似乎是对此等攻击开了绿灯。

Today, the United States seems to have made the judgment that "the nuclear threat is just a paper tiger". This can be seen from Biden's decision to quickly change his position at the G7 summit for more than a year and agree to help export fighter jets to Ukraine. The U.S. State Department has successively stated that "this is the decision of the Ukrainians" for Ukraine's attacks on the Russian border, and it seems to have given the green light to such attacks.

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在美国亮起若隐若现的绿灯之后，乌克兰进一步的越境攻击预计将会陆续有来，规模也将逐步升级。若然如此，人们大概只能冀望，这场战争能在乌克兰把“纸老虎”激活之前够早日结束。

After the U.S. gave the looming green light, further cross-border attacks by Ukraine are expected to come one after another, and the scale will gradually escalate. If this is the case, people can probably only hope that this war can end as soon as possible before Ukraine activates the "paper tiger".

The stance "the nuclear threat is just a paper tiger" is referring to Mao ZeDong who in 1946 made fun of America's atomic bomb as a ’paper tiger’, because he originally saw China's struggle for security only in terms of conventional warfare. Much later he changed his mind, and China's first atomic bomb was one of the rare projects fully realized in the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

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Путин был воспитан страхом, насилием и пропагандой.
Putin was raised by fear, violence and propaganda.

It was the experience of fear and violence, and the mendacious propaganda of
a totalitarian state that shaped Putin in the formation of his beliefs and goals.

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Warning: The following video link might include disturbing pictures of only indicated violence. Please protect your children anyway.



A branch of Russia's defense ministry released a pop song celebrating its vast nuclear arsenal, namely the power of the "Sarmat" missile, also known as the "Son of Satan". As its conventional invasion of Ukraine faltered, Russia has repeatedly stressed its nuclear power. In the video, it is Vladimir Putin who finally gives the order to launch Sarmat against an alleged agressor. - But in the end, it's only a bad joke.

The official text for the above video:
Especially for the Day of the Strategic Missile Forces, Honored Artist of Russia Denis Maidanov and the company "Park Patriot Media" - general producer Sergey Bazhenov, prepared a gift - a video for the song "Sarmatushka" (music by D. Maidanov).

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On visitor statistics to blueprint news:

Maximum number of views that day (May 31) was 184, including 140 related to Singapore. The independent Chinese community of Singapore is an important hub in the submarine networks for connections from East Asia to South Asia, Persian Gulf, Mediterranean, and Europe regions, and vice versa. There are 7 cable landing stations on Singapore island. The South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) is an optical fibre submarine communications cable system and provides the primary Internet backbone between these regions.

Belgorod - Russia - Nuclear Warheads Urgently Removed

UPDATE of May 24
included below !

According to China's Net Ease 網易 news platform on May 23, Russia should have urgently removed nuclear weapons stored at a Belgorod facility. Belgorod (Белгород) is a Russian community near the border to Ukraine where anti-Russian insurgents from Ukraine have been reportedly beaten back according to official Russian media. Russia speaks of terrorism and has allegedly captured two armoured vehicles of US origin. => Latest: US distances itself from incursion into Russia. (BBC, 5 hours ago)

乌克兰情报部门的 Andriy Yusov说： 俄罗斯人开始从俄罗斯联邦别尔哥罗德地区的一个储存设施中取出核弹头。 “甚至还有关于疏散活动的更多信息。Belgorod-22 设施是一个核弹药储存设施，正在紧急疏散；俄罗斯人也正在从 Grevoron 附近地区疏散，”他说。

Andriy Yusov from the Ukrainian intelligence service said: The Russians started removing nuclear warheads from a storage facility in the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation.
"There's even more information about evacuation activities. The Belgorod-22 facility, a nuclear munitions storage facility, is being evacuated urgently; the Russians are also being evacuated from the area around Grevoron," he said.

Link: Russian military facility near Grevoron (Грайворон)

Net Ease 網易 is registered with Guangdong Communications Administration 广东省通信管理局 and marks that article as "stored by user" which seems to be the usual procedure. The user quoted seems to be an elderly person from Guangxi province and describes him/herself as a "well-known NetEase creator in the military field".

The UPDATE of May 24, 2023, offers
a brandnew article by NET Ease 網易:

乌克兰方面声称,这次突击并非由乌军发起,而是由反对普京的俄罗斯国内势力如“俄罗斯理想军”和“俄罗斯自由”组织执行的。乌克兰情报局代表安德烈·尤索夫说,别尔哥罗德地区格雷沃龙区驻扎的俄军25624部队是俄罗斯联邦战略导弹部队的一部分,它实际上是俄罗斯联邦中央核武器储存基地。尤索夫认为,别尔哥罗德最近发生的突击事件应该是反普京势力发起的。

The Ukrainian side claimed that the attack was not initiated by the Ukrainian army, but by domestic forces in Russia that oppose Putin, such as the "Russian Idealists' Army [Russian Volunteer Corps]" and the "[Russian Freedom Legion]". Andrei Yusov, representative of the Ukrainian Intelligence Service, said that the Russian Army Unit 25624 stationed in the Grevoron District of the Belgorod Region is part of the Russian Federation's Strategic Missile Forces, which is actually the Russian Federation's central nuclear weapons storage base. Yusov believes that the recent surprise attack in Belgorod should be initiated by anti-Putin forces.


A semi-official German source described
these Russian insurgent groups as follows:

There has been awareness of the Freedom of Russia Legion since at least the beginning of April 2022. It was apparently formed by captured Russian soldiers who switched over to the Ukrainian side, but also of volunteers with Russian passports.

It is made up of about 500 men, according to Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian State Duma who represents the unit. He was the only Russian lawmaker to vote against the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and went into exile in 2016.

The Russian Volunteer Corps has existed since August 2022 but the number of men is not known. However, a fighter who goes by the name "Cardinal," whose military ID was presented to [the news service], said it had the same tasks as a company -- which can have 30 to 150 men.

One of the co-founders, Denis Kapustin, a businessman who is known as being part of Russia's far-right movement and uses the pseudonym Denis Nikitin, said late last year that the Russian Volunteer Corps had been working with the Ukrainian army since the fall.

On social networks, the Russian Volunteer Corps says that all its members hold right-wing conservative views. "Cardinal" sees Russia's future in a "true nation-state of Russians in the original Russian territories -- taking into account the territorial integrity of Ukraine and Belarus, as well as neighboring countries."

Ukraine - Was Russia Dropping a Dirty Bomb ?

On May 16/17 Chinese media reports [腾讯网] dealt with a scenario observed during Russia's bombing of a Ukrainian ammunition depot, followed by an unexpected increase in radioactive radiation in the Ukrainian region which is neighboring Poland.

尤其引人注目的是，近期社交媒体上出现了多个视频，显示乌克兰城市赫梅利尼茨基（Хмельницький）以西的一个弹药库发生剧烈爆炸，一个巨大的火球从赫梅利尼茨基郊区升起，宛如原子弹爆炸。

What is particularly striking is that several videos have recently appeared on social media, showing a violent explosion at an ammunition depot west of the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytsky (Хмельницький), and a huge fireball rising from the suburbs of Khmelnytsky like that of an atomic bomb explosion.

In the aftermath, there has been an evaluation of what observers could describe as a 'nuclear explosion'. Photos taken before and after the explosion, however, are not necessarily showing more than what could be expected after a huge conventional explosion.

The Chinese source is relating a subsequent increase in radiation to depleted uranium which is present in the material of bunker-breaking grenades, let alone dirty radioactive material eventually stored at this site. The Chinese are therefore using the expression of 'self-inflicted consequences 自食恶果'.

值得一提的是，乌克兰方面公布的数据显示，爆炸发生后，当地的辐射大幅增加。俄专家表示，此次造成的污染面积或许可以与切尔诺贝利事件相提并论，一般情况下，贫铀的伽马辐射剂量很小，但在高温影响下情况发生了变化，受污染地区的有害物质会随着风向周围扩散，人一旦吸入，就会造成内部辐射，带来更多疾病。

It is worth mentioning that the data published by the Ukrainian side show that after the explosion, the local radiation increased significantly. Russian experts said that the contaminated area may be comparable to the Chernobyl incident. Under normal circumstances, the gamma radiation dose of depleted uranium is very small, but under the influence of high temperature the situation has changed, and harmful substances in the contaminated area are spreading with the wind. Once inhaled, they will cause internal radiation, bringing more diseases.

Editor's Opinion:
There might be a dirty Russian bomb as well at the origin of the explosion. - Who knows ?
To find out the source of radioactivity, it needs to analyze the radiation with the help of a multichannel analyzer (2^12 or better). This would provide the spectrum of radioactive elements responsible for the radiation released. If there were any deposits of radioactive waste material already stored at the ammunition site or delivered by a 'dirty bomb', individual hints at the origin of such material might be found. Of course, this will not be easy, as most of the radioactive material present at the scene might turn out to be of Russian origin and/or dating back to Soviet times. However, such research could deliver interesting results. No matter if published or kept secret for some reason, the outcome will be an important data base for scientists. - Ulysses

Ukraine - Britain Delivers Long-Range Cruise Missiles

Important Update added on May 14:

Ukrainian air force already used 'Storm Shadow' cruise missiles to attack Luhansk (Lugansk) in the Russian-held Donbass region. There are two foreign press reports from Al-Jazeera الجزيرة (Qatar) and Hangzhou Network 杭州网 (China) coming in this morning. In the afternoon of May 14, the independent European newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ came with a more complete report of this weekend's military proceedings in Eastern Ukraine. Latest is a news video launched by Al-Jazeera and covering this weekend's political and military developments.

All interpretation of latest proceedings has to take into consideration the tense and confused situation in Eastern Ukraine and, as well, 'the need of the culprits to lie .....'

Al-Jazeera الجزيرة (Chinese language service):
....., the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Saturday [May 13] that Ukrainian aircraft bombed two industrial sites in the Russian-held city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine using long-range 'Storm Shadow' cruise missiles acquired from the United Kingdom. .....
..... The Russian Ministry of Defense said that on Friday, the missiles hit a 'polymer materials production plant' and a 'processed meat factory' in Luhansk. .....
..... "The Storm Shadow air-to-[air?] missiles supplied by the UK to the Kiev regime were used in air strikes, contrary to London's statement that the weapons would not be used on civilian targets," the ministry added.

Hangzhou Network 杭州网:
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on May 13 that the Ukrainian Air Force used the 'Storm Shadow' cruise missiles provided by the United Kingdom to attack local civilian facilities in Luhansk on the 12th, causing civilian casualties including six children. This is contrary to the British side's previous statement that "[Ukraine] will not use the missile to attack civilian facilities". The Russian Ministry of Defense also stated that the Russian Air Force has shot down the Su-24 fighter jet and the MiG-29 fighter jet that provided cover for the Ukrainian air strike mission. .....

Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ:

A Black Weekend for Russia

On the unprecedented downing of four Russian military planes in the border area:

Most likely, the Ukrainians brought one of their anti-aircraft systems – possibly even a recently supplied Western Patriot battery – near the border without being detected and fired from there into Russian airspace. The crashes took place about 35 to 50 kilometers behind the border, so the Ukrainian air defense is likely to have taken up position somewhere in the Chernihiv area for a short time.

So far, there has been no official reaction from Moscow; there, too, they are apparently still struggling to find an explanation for this unprecedented attack. But the crashes are well documented by eyewitness videos. In addition to the two Sukhoi fighter jets of the types Su-34 and Su-35, a military helicopter of the type Mi-8 converted for electronic warfare is also said to have been destroyed, i.e. a particularly valuable, rare aircraft. All crews, a total of nine men, were killed, according to Russian media reports.

On the guided missile attack on industrial facilities in Luhansk:

This time, confirmation came from Moscow where the Ministry of Defense presented debris from Storm Shadow guided missiles and made serious accusations against the British. However, the claim that civilian factories were hit is not very credible. The cruise missiles, equipped with a triple guidance system, are considered very precise, and Luhansk is known as the location of important command and logistics centers of the occupiers. President Vladimir Putin recently visited an underground facility there and held a council of war with his generals from the Donbass Front.

Chinese news release on Twitter (May 14) reporting Ukraine's downing of four Russian military planes: Asia Finance is comparing Putin to Saddam Hussein who lost Iraq to a US alliance in 2003. Their report is accompanied by what looks like the private video of a downed plane in flames. Some Chinese person who retweeted that information compared Putin even to Hitler.




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The original news report of May 13:

Yesterday, May 12, SOHU 搜狐 network reported: According to Reuters press agency, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace should have confirmed to parliament on May 11 that the United Kingdom has begun to supply Ukraine with 'Storm Shadow' cruise missiles with a range of more than 250 kilometers, making the United Kingdom the first country to supply long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. .....

The same day, TENCENT 腾讯 network added:
据称，英国收到了乌克兰的保证，这些导弹只会在乌克兰领土内使用，不会在俄罗斯境内使用。暴风影导弹这种导弹售价约为220万英镑，可以打击硬化掩体和关键设施，并有超过155英里（250公里）的射程。
The UK is said to have received assurances from Ukraine that the missiles will only be used on Ukrainian territory and not on Russian territory. The Storm Shadow missile, which costs around £2.2 million, can hit hardened bunkers and key installations and has a range of more than 155 miles (250km).

Today, May 13, TENCENT quoted White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby:
白宫重申：美方不会提供远程导弹
White House is stressing: U.S. will not provide long-range missiles.

Maybe the US have not finally made up their minds up to now.

Putin's Stance - There is No Ukraine in History

My historical evaluation of Putin's stance is based on a Chinese comment that has been published only some days ago.

Click Here !
On Putin's Stance - There is No Ukraine in History

..... Now Putin denies the historical existence of Ukraine while ignoring the Ukrainian people's overwhelming patriotism and their firm will to fight for their country. It seems that territorial claims cannot be based on some interpretable historical context alone. Broad acceptance provided by a majority of the people affected is needed as well, unless much effort has to be made to subdue new enemies who will strike back at the first opportunity.

Arbitrary bombing of the enemy's civil installations and dwellings, together with the terror of a mercenary army committing war crimes in captured regions, have already led to an international condemnation of Putin's war policies under the false pretext of fighting a „Nazi regime“.

The Stalinist system of the former Soviet Union might have successfully overcome the invasion of Adolf Hitler's militant horde, however only with the generous help of its US ally and which was based on a sound US economy at that time. Not to speak of lots and lots of Russian soldiers and other Soviet nationalities who had to give their lifes because of Stalin's misjudgement and unpreparedness and indiscriminate purge of Russia's elites. - Putin should therefore watch out to avoid a similar fate like that of his predecessor.

China - Learn to Know Your Citizens !

Cameras by Hikvision and drones from DJI are being used to thoroughly survey most citizens of mainland China. But cameras and surveillance systems from Huawei and ZTE can be found outside China as well. Reportedly, there are still up to one hundred countries using Chinese equipment and software. Even after US president Trump announced his ban on Chinese technology, many rural communities in the USA are still relying on hardware from Huawei and which is the only way to guarantee their desperately needed highspeed broadband connection.

However there seems to be one poblem with the cameras and which has been recently discovered by experts: They are vulnerable to hacking which could enable illegal remote access to their video data. Reports came from Pakistan where lots of Hikvision cameras were being installed especially in the capital of Islamabad to make it a "safe city". It is not quite clear whether such vulnerability has been "overlooked" intentionally, even though Pakistan is being regarded as one of China's most important partners in the frame of some kind of alternative connection with Africa via sea cable from Pakistan to Djibouti (former French Somalia) where China maintains its only foreign naval base. Here is a video dealing with the problem:



By the way, there is a German song for children dating back to the years of my own childhood. It deals with three Chinese persons and their double bass sitting in the street and talking to each other, quite a strange scene at that time. Therefore police immediately rushed in to have a look. I gave the scene a fresh look when I transferred it to modern China where a security drone detected the group and advised them to comply with public behaviour by returning home as quickly as possible.

30-days visitor statistics (including global distribution of internet nodes)

Taiwan - Deutsche Außenministerin in Peking

Click Here !
Ein Bericht der Pekinger Volkszeitung zum Besuch
der Deutschen Außenministerin Baerbock in Peking

Taiwan - Symbols of Conflict

In the frame of PR China's encirclement of Taiwan, the air forces of both countries recently met at close distance.

On the occasion, Taiwanese pilots operating their home-made JingGuo fighters wore badges on their uniform that are showing the symbols of the conflict: A Taiwanese black bear holding the flag of the Republic of China in his left hand, and Winnie the Pooh's honey pot expressing five stars that symbolize PR China's flag. The word "Scramble (= emergency lift-off)" is written in English below.

It should be added that Winnie the Pooh has become the inofficial symbol of Communist China's leader Xi JinPing.

DDR Nostalgie - Die "Fünfte Kolonne" und ihre Denkweise

To read the related article, you need to click to the above picture.

Wie kann man die Denkweise einer Gruppe beschreiben ohne eine unübersichtliche Sammlung von persönlichen Aussagen aufzulisten ? Das Filtern einzelner Aussagen ist dabei mühselig und wird von der persönlichen Einschätzung des Auswerters beeinflusst, seiner Lebenserfahrung und seinen persönlichen Werten, aber auch von Vorgaben eines möglichen Auftraggebers.

Warum nicht stattdessen die psychologische Disposition dieser Gruppe auf der Grundlage ihrer konkreten Situation beschreiben ? Eine solche elementare Disposition ließe sich in erster Näherung nach dem von Karl Marx vorgestellten materialistischen Prinzip ermitteln, das wir mit der Aussage 'Das Sein bestimmt das Bewusstsein' verbinden. Wichtig ist dabei zunächst nur die gründliche Kenntnis von Fakten zu den einheitlichen Lebensumständen dieses Personenkreises.

In Verbindung mit weiteren Fakten, die den Rahmen für die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines ganz bestimmten Handelns festlegen, läßt sich dann mit deutlich weniger Aufwand bereits eine verläßliche Aussage über eine etwa vorhandene kollektive Einstellung formulieren.

Wem das jetzt zu hoch ist, der möge sich diese Vorgehensweise ungefähr so vorstellen, dass hier eine Abschätzung von Denk- und Verhaltensweisen erfolgt, die zwar nicht wissenschaftlich exakt, aber trotzdem insoweit aussagekräftig ist, als sie in den meisten Fällen zutreffen wird. Man muss sich nur darüber im klaren sein, wo die Grenzen dieser Methode liegen.

Wie so etwas aussehen kann, habe ich mit meiner Betrachtung DDR Nostalgie - Die "Fünfte Kolonne" und ihre Denkweise einmal auf unterhalsame Art zusammengestellt. Sie könnte auch bei der Lösung aktueller gesellschaftlicher Probleme hilfreich sein .....

BRD Nostalgie Товарищи и друзья Genossen und Freunde

Link to another related blogspot: Happy Birthday - Graf Baltar !

Sisters of Evil - How Truth Fell Victim to Evil Lies

But they are not alone ....

A recent evaluation published by The Intercept, a US journal, says that George W. Bush's Iraq War Lies had already created a blueprint for Donald Trump. The author James Risen comes to the conclusion that the officially sanctioned conspiracy theory, hinting at Saddam Hussein for being behind the 9/11 set of attacks, was a dangerous precedent of what followed under Donald Trump.

Nobody would have imagined that just some years later a brandnew Republican President of the United States could beat all standards. It's almost unbelievable but the Washington Post fact check can prove that Donald Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over 4 years in office.

As to Vladimir Putin things are not really better. After having silenced Russia's once pluralistic press, he is now in control of the media and keen to promote there his own crude nationalist stance derived from the times of Stalinism while running amuck in Ukraine.

As a result of such development in Russia and the USA, the collection of authentic news has become more difficult for the honest type of a journalist. The invasion of junk news that we recognize as a giant fake news attack meanwhile even swapped into Europe targeting people of low as well as of high education, thus sowing uncertainty on all levels of society.

Nothing Lasts but a Beautiful Mind

Germany and USA - Still No Trust in China

Recent news from Germany came along with a decision of German authorities to check older handy chips and functional devices from China that have already been in use for some time. As to brandnew chips from China that check and security survey already came into force. New regulations are intended to shield the German 5G network from possible Chinese government access by means of feared government pressure on China based manufacturers. This latest decision has caused some official irritation in China.

As to the recent visit of US President Biden in Central Asia, China fears an increase of US influence due to US mistrust in China's activities in the area. What looks specially suspicious to the Biden administration are two railway connections between China and Iran.

Click Here ! USA and China in mutual mistrust in Central Asian activities.

China and Russia – Competition or Cooperation ?

Recent news on Belarus are raising US suspicion of a planned cooperation between Belarus, China and Russia to achieve the strategic goal of an 'Eurasian Integration' that would leave Western Europe apart and weaken the global position of the United States.

Click here ! Quotations from Chinese media on the subject.

A Chinese Evaluation of Russia - A Glimpse of the Truth

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the Russian-Ukrainian war, here is a rare evaluation of Russia in the view of a Chinese commentator working for a majority state-owned Chinese medium.

Click here ! Excerpts from the Original Article

Other Chinese sources dealing with the Russian-Ukrainian war:

Related information on Russia 03-02-2023:
Chinese view on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Russian general on satellite TV: After Ukraine,
Poland will be next, rest of Europe will follow.
Chinese info on Russian intentions 07-02-2023

The Iranian-Afghan-Chinese Alliance State of the Art in 2023

Update on latest development
included on 7 January 2023.

One year ago, on 28 January 2022, some Chinese comment discussed the feasability of a joint Iranian-Afghan-Chinese oil pipeline project intended to connect Iranian oil fields with China's western province of Xinjiang via northern Afghanistan.

In March 2021, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Tehran and signed a 25-year joint comprehensive political, economic and cultural cooperation agreement with Iran. In January this year [i.e. 2022], the foreign minister of the new Iranian government paid a return visit to China, and the 25-year cooperation agreement was officially implemented. In other words, the Lehi government, which came to power in August 2021, continued the Rouhani government's China policy, and even went a little further. Energy issues are particularly prominent within the framework of cooperation. In the context of the withdrawal of the US military from Afghanistan and the Taliban being on friendly terms with China, and under the premise of Afghan society being stabilized, the connection of Iran’s Persian Gulf (outlet to the sea) to China’s Xinjiang oil pipelines running through Afghanistan would greatly reduce the possibility of China’s energy source being blocked. The agreement solves the problem of Iran's energy guarantee to China. At the same time, taking into account the long-term nature of Afghanistan's construction, the time is set at 25 years, giving China sufficient time for construction.

Today now, on 6 January 2023, German National Radio 'Deutschlandfunk' quoted an external source on China having signed a contract with the Taliban government in Afghanistan for the exploitation of an oil field.

Hours later, some Chinese source confirmed the fact of negotiations on exploitation rights between China and the Taliban. The location of a certain oil field in question was specially mentioned. It should be lying in the Amudarya region where crude oil and natural gas reserves had already been known to exist, at the time US military engaged in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 'September 11 incidents' of 2001.

However, up to now the security problem is still an issue in Afghanistan, even though Taliban authorities are doing their best to please their friendly Chinese partners. The prove is a recent attack of terrorists on a Kabul hotel that is being regularly frequented by Chinese visitors to Afghanistan.

Around 2:30 pm on 12 December 2022, local time, several terrorists suddenly broke into a hotel in the center of Kabul. According to foreign media, this is a "hotel very popular with Chinese people". Taliban security forces rushed in immediately and killed three armed men on the spot.

Looking at the picture, there are Chinese characters written on the outer wall of the hotel: Kabul Guiyuan Hotel.

Days before, Chinese diplomats had allegedly contacted the deputy minister for security of the Taliban to ensure enforcement of security for the Chinese embassy.

The day after the incident some Chinese source reported:

阿富汗传来一个坏消息 与我们中国人有关
Title: Bad news from Afghanistan are related to our Chinese.

谁干的？
正与塔利班进行交战的“伊斯兰国”。就在北京时间13日早晨，看到最新的一条消息，“伊斯兰国”已宣布对桂园饭店袭击负责。
很多人认为塔利班极端，但真正极端的其实是“伊斯兰国”。

Who did it ?
"Islamic State" fighting the Taliban. Just on the morning of the 13th [December] Beijing time, I saw the latest news that the "Islamic State" had declared responsibility for the attack on the Guiyuan Hotel.
Many people think that the Taliban is extreme, but the real extreme is actually the "Islamic State".

After news about an Afghan-Chinese oil deal recently spread on the internet, latest Chinese publications stressed the humanitarian character of China's cooperation with the Taliban, even mentioning the goal of promoting woman rights in Afghanistan. One report made it clear that about 3.000 Afghan workers could be employed in the frame of the Chinese oil exploitation program. However, China doesn't seem to be fully satisfied with support provided by the Taliban.

Above: What looks like the signing of a contract, should be
the delivery of aid materials to the Taliban authorities.

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On the contrary, things between China and Iran are running rather smoothly since 2022.

Above: Iran's Chabahar port soon open to Chinese ships [04-01-2023].

Above: Chinese article on the history of Iranian-Chinese relations [05-01-2023].